Cross bores are extremely dangerous and can lead to disasters. This Town Hall will focus on both how to prevent future cross bores as well the best ways to find existing cross bores. Listen to the experts on the panel and bring your suggestions to share. Passing on solutions could save lives. This ESA Town Hall was sponsored by ULC Technologies.

Insurance costs for utility damage coverage can be significant for both contractors and facility owners. During this Town Hall, the panel will talk about the biggest underwriting indicator for future rates, “past claims”.

One of the most important factors in damage prevention and safe excavation is ensuring that locates are on time and accurate. This was not an easy task even before huge fiber builds started popping up, sometimes with almost no warning. Hiring, training and keeping good technicians can be a big challenge, especially with downward pressure on per ticket prices. All stakeholders benefit when these problems are solved. The March ESA Town Hall will focus on solutions issues that face locate companies and internal locate teams. Our discussion will cover both short term and long-term solutions involving communication, technology, locating a career, and ways that state laws can be improved.

It is easy to track the basic hard cost to repair a damaged cable or pipeline, but that is usually only a small portion of the full cost. How do you track the cost for labor costs associated with investigation, collection efforts, out of service complaints, employee travel time, traffic control, etc.? Do you track costs for traffic control, site restoration, permits, etc. and link them to the total cost? On top of that how do you attribute costs to the outages due to damage your brand as well as the societal costs?  

Moderator: Kelley Heinz 

Panel Members

Moderator: Ed Landgraf, Texas 811 & CAMO

Panelists: Pascual "Paco" Alvarez, Damage Prevention Coordinator, Chevron Devon Carlock, VP of Safety & Govt. Relations / President, Cottrell Contracting Corporation / CDMCS Sam Minifie, Policy Advisor - Pipeline, American Petroleum Institute

Everyone’s goal is to avoid hitting a cable or a pipeline during excavation. Unfortunately, damages still occur for a wide variety of reasons. When there is a damage someone has to pay the repair and related costs. This can range from several thousand to seven figures. A thorough, timely investigation is the best way to defend yourself. Moderator: Jim Proszek, Attorney, Hall Estill

Moderator Ann Rushing, Education Manager, NC811 Panel Members Marty Mead, Director of Damage Prevention, CO811 Chris Stermer, WGI – FUCC Chair Becky Kinsey, Liaison Manager, Georgia 811

Hitting an electric cable when digging or working near overhead cables can be fatal. The big push to move electric cables underground along with increased spending on infrastructure highlight the need for a focus on safety and preventing damage. In addition, we will talk about damage prevention ideas when dealing with natural disasters and protecting wind energy lines. We will be looking for ideas on things that have worked in the past and ideas on how to improve safety in the future. Moderator Mike Sullivan, Utility Safety Partners Panelists Kelley Heinz, ComEd Glen "Cookie" Cook, Energy Queensland Cliff Meidl, Safety Speaker-Spokesperson Sher Kirk, Utility Safety Partners

Moderator: Ketha Molina, Texas811

Panel members: